The Logger men’s basketball suffered a heartbreaking loss to PLU on Tuesday night, falling just short of an amazing comeback victory in the last three minutes.
The Loggers were trailing by 7 when they put the pressure on in the back court. That pressure, combined with two three point shots by Aaron Edwards got the Loggers back to within two points with 24 seconds left on the clock.
A key steal by junior Kaleb Shelton (Tacoma, Wash.) put the Loggers in a great spot to complete the comeback, but the Lutes forced a turnover and proceeded to sink their free throws, putting the game out of reach. As the clock wound down, the Loggers found themselves on the wrong end of a hard-fought 78-74 game in Memorial Fieldhouse.
Shelton led the Loggers with 18 points, followed by four other double digit scorers: juniors Edric Egberuare (San Jose, Calif.), Ryan Rogers (Tacoma, Wash.) and Anthony Gittens (Tacoma, Wash.), and senior Aaron Edwards (Atlanta, Ga.).
Friday night, however, was an entirely different story for the Loggers. It was Senior Night and the Loggers’ final home game of the season.
Junior guard Ryan Rogers said that they “wanted to go out with a win at home, and send off their lone senior, Aaron Edwards with a win.” They “played [the game] for him,” Rogers added.
Coach Lunt started the game with heavy full court pressure which never let up, and the Loggers were able to force several turnovers early on to hold the Linfield Wildcats to only 16 first half points while racking up 35 of their own. Once the Loggers got up, they never looked back and were able to win 73-57 in their home season finale.
Shelton’s double-double led the Loggers’ attack, grabbing 10 rebounds and scoring 16 points. Gittens and Egberuare scored 12 and 11 points, respectively. In his final home game in a Logger uniform, Edwards scored 10 points with five rebounds, two steals and three assists. With two minutes left in the game, Coach Lunt pulled the starters, as Memorial Fieldhouse erupted with applause for Edwards one last time.
With the season drawing to a close, the Loggers hope to keep rolling and rack up two more victories against second place Lewis & Clark, and sixth place George Fox next week down in Oregon.